Even today when electronic technologies are developed significantly, paper documents are still used in great quantities in offices, etc. The main reasons are considered to be the following merits; (1) low price, (2) easy to write on, (3) possible to refer to many sheets simultaneously, and (4) easy and quick reference by means of “turning the pages”. Furthermore, if paper document information such as information printed and/or written on paper can be managed electronically in computers, users could come to enjoy not only the convenience of such paper, but also the multifunctional properties of such computers.
In recent years, it has become easy to electronize information written on paper. Particularly, there has been lately realized a pen-type input device (digital pen) and put to practical use. The pen-type input device obtains a locus of its pen tip on paper as electronic data. The digital pen can input the obtained locus of the pen tip to a computer. For example, there is a digital pen developed by Anoto Inc., in Sweden. International Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 01/71473 discloses the details of the digital pen. The digital pen can be used easily even by users who are not accustomed to the use of keyboards and mice. This is why the digital pen is expected to be employed in various fields, for example, in document management not only at windows of local governmental offices for applications and requests to services, but also in other offices of companies, etc. With a progress of such input devices, it has become very easy now to electronize information written on paper.
Under such circumstances, the first consideration is how paper is used actually now? In offices, schools, etc., it is often seen that a sheet of paper is pasted on another sheet of paper. For example, a graph is created with use of a spreadsheet software program and printed out on a sheet of paper, then the graph is clipped and pasted on a page of a notebook. Hereunder, a sheet of paper to be pasted on another sheet of paper just like the graph described above will be referred to as a “paste-from document”. And the paper on which the paste-from document is to be pasted just like the notebook described above will be referred to as a “paste-to document”. And to realize the merits of both the paper and the spreadsheet software described above, a document management technique corresponding to such a pasting work is needed.
As a document management technique that takes consideration to such a pasting work, for example, JP-A No. 2005-085155 discloses a conventional technique. According to the technique, a sheet of paper on which a dot pattern is printed out is used. The dot pattern identifies a position of a digital pen on the paper. When a writing error of the digital pen is detected, a sheet of correction paper on which only a dot pattern is printed is pasted on the error position, thereby correcting the writing error. Thus the written electronic data is updated correctly in accordance with the pasting work.
In the case of the conventional technique, however, the correction paper to be pasted is blank and it is not expected that the paper to be pasted already includes written/printed data.
The conventional technique also includes a problem that the pasting work corresponds only to written electronic data. Actually, however, a paste-from document and a paste-to document often include such printed data as a graph, etc. and such printed information must also be pasted together to manage paper documents electronically; otherwise, the electronical document management cannot be done perfectly. In addition, to realize such perfect electrical document management, the management technique is also required to correspond to diversified printing forms such as scaling printing, as well as N-up printing that prints out plural sheets on a sheet of paper collectively.
If e-document data to be assumed as a printing source is updated after paper pasting, how the consistency is to be kept in the document management data is also a problem. Such a problem arises, for example, in a case in which a graph is pasted on a notebook as described above, then an error is found in the pasted graph data, so that the electronic data is corrected with use of a spreadsheet software program.
In some cases, the size and shape of a subject paste-from document, as well as the pasting position of the paste-to document may already be known clearly with respect to a pasting work type. For example, such a case will come under a pasting work of a regular format label seal having a notebook owner name and the notebook serial number printed on the cover of the notebook. The conventional technique cannot cope with such a simplified pasting work easily. This has been a problem.